Top 10 Shuttle Craft Designs

Shuttle Craft

This is my choice of designs, I classed as a short-range vessels or auxiliary space vehicle that can transport more than two people over great distances, having hyper-light or sub-light speeds and some cargo carrying abilities, yet still classed as Auxiliary.

1st. Imperial Shuttle

Return of the Jedi (1983)

Lambda-class T-4a shuttle a very elegant design and really conveys that imperial stamp, this design has Hyperspace abilities with some armament and shielding to protect it , was a multi-purpose transport with a trihedral foil design used by the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War, and was considered an elegant departure from the standards of brutish Imperial engineering. The shuttles were often used by high-ranking Imperial officers and such dignitaries

2nd. Danube Class Runabout
Star Trek Deep Space Nine

Star-fleet Runabout This is a cool design and one of the better designs to created for Star Trek Deep Space 9. it could be based on the versatility of Space 1999 Eagle’s based on some non canon information that I find interesting.
To make this versatility the Danube-class featured a modular design with the aft section being swappable for mission specific modules

3rd. Eagle

Space 1999

The Eagle, Moon-base Alpha’s workhorse spacecraft in Space 1999, this has always been a firm favourite in design and appearance, I moved it down from number 1 place as it hampered by limited range.

Flown by a number of pilots, their captain is Alan Carter, the Eagle had the look and feel that many in the 1970s would be close to a realistic look for a space craft in the 1999s, at least I did.

4th. Vulcan Shuttle

Star Trek The Motion Picture (1979)

The Surak, Federation-registered long range shuttle that was in service in the late 23rd century, I love this design the moment it appeared Star Trek The Motion Picture, sadly only appeared once in all the films and TV episodes as far as I know. With its detachable main cabin to enable to dock to another Starship when Transporters are not an option for whatever reason that arises in Star Trek, a fantastic design by the creative talents of Andrew Probert

5th. Colonial Shuttle

Battlestar Galactica 1978

Colonial Shuttle the work-horse for the Colonial Fleet, it can be between 85 and 110 ft long, commanded by two pilots and having room for a large number of passengers it can also carry one LandRAM land craft, but the design is limited to sub-light speed, but has significant cargo and crew capabilities.

6th. Orion III

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Orion III This is a great design from 2001: A Space Odyssey and is a 2 stage lift off requirement mainly for passenger transport, apparently very limited in range only orbital abilities, its its design, that places it in 6th place.

7th. Federation Shuttle

Star Trek The Original Series(1966)

A fan favourite “Class-F shuttle-craft” or Galileo 7, The twenty-four foot long and could carry at least seven passengers, and a smaller aft section, which contained a small engineering area. only interplanetary abilities, but somehow manages to keep up with the Warp driven USS Enterprise in “The Menagerie”.. Perhaps it has some limited warp speed?

8th. Ranger 3

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979)

Ranger 3 the shuttle that takes Buck Rogers from the 20th century to the 25th century while Buck is frozen, it does have features of the USA Space Shuttle, but greatly smaller, so its good to have even a fictional NASA craft appear in my top 10 Shuttles

9th. Star Bug

Red Dwarf (1989)

Red Dwarfs support craft own by Jupiter Mining Corporation and manned by the last human alive by the name of Dave Lister, the last known human alive, and Arnold Rimmer, a hologram of Lister’s dead bunk mate. The other characters are Cat, a life form which evolved from the descendants of Lister’s pregnant pet cat Frankenstein; Holly, Red Dwarf’s computer; Kryten, a service mechanoid. this craft changes from each season, but I do like the basic design.

10th. Starfire

Jason of Star Command (1978)

Jason of Star Command flew a Starfire. This fast spaceship had a star pod that could separate from the ship in an emergency, a good design and one I remember with fondness from my youth..